GTA V mod The Pinnacle of V shuts down indefinitely

A PC modder who only recently released a mod for Grand Theft Auto V has shut down access to his mod, following the realisation that the peers he was working with, were stealing other modders’ work. The Pinnacle of V offered gamers 4K textures, more detailed weather effects, overhauled shadows, and more realistic lighting for the PC version of Rockstar’s open world hit.

Posting a notice on his website, The Pinnacle of V’s creator Josh Romito wrote “I regret to inform the community that The Pinnacle of V is now permanently shut down. Over the past week or so, I have been informed that parts of this project have been directly stolen from other developers, and handed to me as additions to my work. I have been made a fool of due to the motions of my peers, and I am taking action to try and preserve any honesty and integrity with the community I can. I apologize to everyone who was stolen from, and I wish there was a way this could be reversed.

I have personally put hundreds of hours of my own time and hard, legitimate work into this project. I am truly hurt and disgusted to see the fraud that has come from others. I hope the community can see this situation for what it is, that I have been honest from the beginning, and am doing what I can to make amends of this wrong doing. I started this project as a learning experience, and it turned into fraud when others became involved. The internet is full of scammers and people who serve no purpose but to cause havoc. This was my first time getting involved in a “community” type project, and I was shocked to see some of the support I was receiving, and how generous people were. It turns out it was all lies and stolen content. I’m not sure how else to handle a situation like this, so I am simply shutting it down and releasing the honest truth.

All links and downloads to the files are being removed at the time of this posting. I will be releasing my own work in a few months or so, under a new title of “Redux” modding. I hope to be judged upon the new project, and not the mash up of non-sense that became the pinnacle.”

It’s a sad day, but I respect his honesty and actions of shutting down his mod. As he said in his post, Josh put a lot of hard work into what he created, and to learn that it was making use of work created by others, unbeknownst to him, must feel like a blow to the stomach.